No, the baby elephant seen in the viral video was not born at Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple.!
A video has gone viral on the internet, with captions claiming that the baby elephant in the video, Vaikundam, was born at the Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple. The video shows a baby elephant clad in a nettipattam (elephant caparison) moving around and playing with water in a baby bath pool inside a temple’s premises.
A few screenshots of the video are as follows and the entire video can be viewed here:
*A baby elephant born in Guruvayoor ShriKrishna Temple. Baby elephant's name is Vaikundam*❤️💘❤️💘 pic.twitter.com/xZNZPPQQyf
— G V Nair🇮🇳NaMo🇮🇳🚩 (@gvnair91) July 7, 2021
A baby elephant born in #Guruvayoor temple. Baby elephant's name is Vaikundam ❤️ pic.twitter.com/4z2sdMtIxy
— Fiery Nair (@AyeDhanno) July 6, 2021
A baby born in Guruvayoor temple. Baby Elephant's name is Vaikundam
Rcvd from WA pic.twitter.com/aTkcaLZfnk
— D Prasanth Nair (@DPrasanthNair) July 8, 2021
On Facebook, the video was shared along with the caption, “A baby Elephant,named Vaikundam,born at Guruvayur temple.Hare Krishna 🙏🏼👏👍”
TRUTH
The video that claims to be of baby elephant Vaikundam (Male), born at Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple is actually captioned incorrectly.
This is a year old video from the naming ceremony at Sri Manjunatha Swamy Temple in Dharmasthala, Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, for an elephant calf called Shivani, who was born on July 1, 2020.
The infrastructure of the temple suggests that the video was not shot at a temple in Kerala. Similarly, Mahouts in Kerala wear Mundu (dhotis) and do not wear headgears, therefore the mahout’s clothing and headgear are not typical of the state.
A simple YouTube search for the video using the keywords ” Baby elephant born in the Guruvayoor Sree Krishna Temple.” led us to similar videos that were published by the YouTube channels ANI News Official and Tv9 Kannada .
These videos were published on Aug 31, 2020
Last year, videos of baby elephant Shivani’s naming ceremony became popular on the internet, with a significant number of people sharing them.
Namakarana of a new born elephant in Dharmasthala, Karnataka 🙂 isn't that cute !!! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/BiHZWoi4Sl
— ND (@SHREYAS_ND) September 1, 2020
Naming ceremony of baby elephant held at Dharmasthala temple (Karnataka) – Baby elephant named "Shivani".. 😍😍 pic.twitter.com/Tqty4rk2yR
— Praveen Upadhyaya (@PraveenraoU) August 31, 2020
The official Facebook page of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatha Temple had also posted pictures of the ceremony on Aug 31, 2020
The Hindu and The Indian Express had also published articles about this event on August 31, 2020 and September 2, 2020 respectively.
This video went viral last year because to the cuteness of the newborn elephants, and it has since been re-posted on social media accounts claiming to be from a different state, temple, and even gender of the elephant.Hence the claims associated with the video’s caption is false.
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